In Solidarity for Screen Writers, Fellow Laborers
The writers are striking! The writers are striking! It’s been over a week since the strike began.
Are your favorite shows affected? If you don’t watch TV, could you care less? Regardless of what you think, screen writers are fellow laborers. Unlike those who speak their words on screen they’re not strutting red carpets, endorsing clothing lines, or receiving the same residuals that make performers and executives wealthy. If you enjoy TV shows on your I-Pod, phone, or computer, you are part of the market that the writers fear is stealing their revenue.
Photograph by “Adam”. Some rights reserved.
The Wall Street Journal reports that in current compensation structure writers of prime time programs earn minimum of $21,000 for a half-hour script or $31,000 for a one-hour script. The main point of the Writers’ Guild of America (WGA) strike, which began on November 5th, is the networks’ hot pursuit of creating web distribution channels with the hope that advertisers will follow. Writers fear that unless they negotiate for residual payments now, they will lose out in the future. Currently, an advertising model for Internet television hasn’t evolved; advertisers still pay more for network television ads than they do for Internet television. Writers receive a flat fee the first two times an episode airs and earn extra fees if the show goes into syndication or sells foreign rights.
The WGA has the memory of their strike in 1985 when the home video market was just beginning. At that time, the production companies called home videos an “unproven market” and the writers accepted a very small percentage of the earnings from it. Now home video sales far outstrip box office sales. According to The New York Times, in 2004 companies made $4.8 billion in home video sales vs. $1.78 billion at the box office.
Negotiations for online or phone distribution are murky because the WGA is asking for the same compensation they receive for cable or pay TV, but networks claim there are as yet no earnings from this new market to use as a basis. The distributors claim that the Internet is a marketing tool rather than a platform for actual viewing. The writers are balking at the idea of writing promotional web content and not being fairly compensated for their work.
But in the end it’s all about us consumers, isn’t it? How does this affect you? Wikipedia (so useful!) has a chart that shows which shows will be affected. Reality shows can carry on with their unscripted spontaneity. South Park is not affected by the strike since its writers aren’t guild members.
What’s going on outside of mainstream media reports? TiFaux has rallied the TV blogs for insider news and opinions to withhold new content. The blog United Hollywood is written by the strike captains and continues to produce updates. This just in: twenty TV Blogs are striking today, too. In solidarity they are going dark.
But how sympathetic are we? I’m sympathetic to everyone struggling to make ends meet. Immigrant laborers should be so lucky as to have the income issues TV writers face. Yes, it’s a lame comparison. It’s like comparing apples to macadamia nuts, or comparing making $21,000 for a half-hour script to earning less than a $6.50 hourly wage.
In 1990 I was on teachers strike for a few weeks in the Virgin Islands because a negotiated raise never reached the our paychecks. We ended up going back to work without our demands met. We needed to pay our mortgages or rent, and buy groceries. But we went back too soon. It took several other strikes against the VI government to secure that raise. If you make a threat, you have to be prepared to follow through.
Photograph by “Adam”. Some rights reserved.
The writers have lifestyles to support, too. Although they are probably beyond living paycheck to paycheck, their work is making executives and performers rich. Having been raised blue collar and schooled in the labor versus management struggle, I know management will always push for more work. It’s labor’s role to not let them get away with it. Not true Marxist theory, but my observations as a laborer.
Submitted by Betty Story. Betty Story is a writer, researcher and recovering librarian. She can be contacted at betstory@storyinfo.net
